What did you do before you were an AirBnb host?

  1. U.S. federal government employee, before and during.
  2. Supplement. Competition on STR rates in my area + increase in commercial insurance coverage cost are squeezing my net profit, so if the supplement shrinks too much, I’ll quit this business.
  3. Give ups: 2 hours turnover per stay, plus communication and shopping/stocking time. A small amount of peace of mind. Flexibility in travel schedule and friends/family (personal) use of attached suite. I will not rent if I am not present in the main house. Also, I limit personal use to 14 days or less annually in order to maximize expense deductions for US income tax reporting purposes.
  4. Recently retired from federal government. Have a long term rental and accounting practice.
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I am interested in finding out what Airbnb hosts did before they were hosts? The same things as I do now; work, volunteer, parent, carer, trustee, landlord

Is Airbnb now the sole source of your income or is it a supplement? No. Yes.

Is there anything you have had to give up as a result of becoming an Airbnb host? Not ironing linens.My time.

Are you currently engaging in any other work streams alongside being an Airbnb host? What’s a workstream?

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Prior to Airbnb: Registered Nurse- specialty Informatics / Technical

Location: South Carolina, USA

Is Airbnb now the sole source of your income or is it a supplement? Supplemental revenue so rental property can pay its own mortgage & expenses.

Is there anything you have had to give up as a result of becoming an Airbnb host? Maybe. What I gave up is related to making the decision to purchase rental property in a resort area. Due to the expense of renovations beyond the rental income, I would not be able to take a vacation other than staying at my beach condo for 5-6 years.

Are you currently engaging in any other work streams alongside being an Airbnb host? Yes work full time as RN - informatics / Technical, UBER driver & have long term rental property not listed on Airbnb

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Are you seeking responses from other areas?

Marketing manager, consumer package goods, single parent, landlord, house flipper (how do you like your house? Over easy? :grin:)

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I do hope you haven’t encouraged hosts here to waste their time by responding to you because you didn’t say in your original post that you were focussing on London only :frowning:

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You probably should work on creating a poll on this forum for best results, and leave an e-mail or private message for follow-ups.

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Oh bother, normally don’t mind helping what appears to be thousands (10s of thousands??) of students do STR “sharing economy” studies, but my time is valuable. Please be specific.

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No, sorry I wasn’t more clear, my study is focussed on some aspects that are specific to London but I am still using data from all over so every response I have had is extremely useful and is being used in my investigation. I am just reaching out more specifically to London hosts for follow up questions, this doesn’t mean I don’t highly value every response I have received.

Yes, I would still love to hear about experiences in other areas too, some aspects of my projects are specifically tied to London but much of it is investigating the wider Airbnb community so all responses are highly valued and useful!

Hi, sorry for not providing further details, my project surrounds Airbnb hosting and it’s impact on inequality, specifically social and economic inequality. This means I am seeking to gain an understanding of the motivations of Airbnb hosts, the barriers to entry that hosts face (e.g. discrimination, ownership of assets etc.), whether they think of Airbnb as an employer or a platform on which they can operate their own business, how secure Airbnb is as a source of employment/income etc. If you have more questions I would be happy to email you a more detailed brief. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Thanks for the advice, I will definitely look to do this as I continue with my project!

Hi Helsi,
Thanks for the response, the information you have provided is greatly appreciated. By workstream I mean any other source of employment/income earning activities.

Thanks for clarifying, hope the info you are gathering is useful. Please come back and post your executive summary or abstract.

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My apologies Aashni, for the late response. I’m afraid I left London several years ago for the Kent coast, nor did I have a B&B whilst there, so probably of little help.

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I was and still am an English professor. Though you wouldn’t think it from my writing here! I’m a millennial but still have trouble with my phone typing. :rofl:

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